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Bangladesh sucks- by Taslima Nasrin

Bangladesh sucks. Yes it does. It does everything to make Islamists ruin the country. It started a war against me more than 20 years ago. Hundreds of thousands of Islamists took to the streets for my execution by hanging, they did it because I told the truth about the incompatibility between Islam and women’s rights. The government filed cases against me on the charges of hurting religious feeling of the people and I was forced to stay in hiding for months and then was forced to leave the country. I have not been allowed to return to my country since then. Politicians or army whoever ruled the country did not take any action against the Islamists who threatened to kill the writers and intellectuals for criticizing Islam. A renowned writer, Ahmed Sharif, was attacked by the Islamists. Shamsur Rahman, a famous poet was also attacked. Islamists attempted to kill Humayun Azad for writing a novel that made fun of them. A cartoonist called Arifur Rahman was in jailafter the government said his drawings had insulted Muslims. Asif Mohiuddin was arrested 2 years ago for his blogs that criticized Islam. Now he is stabbed by the Islamists.
It can be dangerous to be an atheist. In Bangladesh, a popular atheist blogger was attacked and stabbed by a group of Islamic fundamentalists in a suburb of the capital city of Uttara on Monday night.
According to reports, Asif Mohiuddin was stabbed multiple times in the neck and upper body by three unidentified attackers near his office in Dhaka’s upscale Uttara district. Friends of Mohiuddin, who were with him at the time of the attack, blamed “Islamic fundamentalists.”
As of Tuesday, Jan. 15, Mohiuddin was “improving but still not out of danger” at the Dhaka Medical College Hospital, where surgeons spent more than three hours trying to repair the damage done by the would-be assassins.
Mohiuddin’s blog, is one of the most visited web pages in Bangladesh. Mohiuddin is known for advocating what some have termed “Militant Atheism” in a country where Islam is the state religion, and over 90% of Bangladesh’s 153 million people identify as Muslim.
The biggest harm Bangladesh did to herself is not really by killing or imprisoning atheists or forcing atheists to go into exile, but by forcing millions of citizens to keep their mouth shut forever. They no more express their opinions that the majority finds different.
Secularism was one of the pillars of new born Bangladesh. It was supposed to become more liberal and more secular than Pakistan. But in four decades, the rulers of the country managed to make it a truly Islamist country. The country was separated from Pakistan. But the truth is, Bangladesh is no better than Pakistan.